Prof David Clutterbuck

David is one of the international pioneers of coaching and mentoring. He works with individuals, teams and organizations to help them have the conversations they need, to bring about significant, positive change. He brought the concept of structured mentoring programmes to Europe in the early 1980s and, with David Megginson, is a co-founder of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council, for which he is now a Lifetime Ambassador. Of his 60 books to date, more than a third are in the field of coaching and mentoring.

David brings to mentoring not only an immense knowledge of the subject and experience working with hundreds of mentees -- from CEOs of multinationals to teenagers at school – but also a wide experience of the practicalities of setting up and growing businesses. His special interests include top team development, growing talent and diversity. David defines developmental mentoring as helping a client with the quality of their thinking, about issues important to them. The most effective mentoring, he believes, allows the client to have the conversations they need with themselves., to determine and work towards their own aspirations. David has four adult sons, one with Down’s Syndrome and autism and six grandchildren. He and his wife Polly co-founded the UK’s first ice skating club for young people with learning disability and he continues to support this a decade later as a sports coach. He sets himself a major new challenge each year – from sky-diving to becoming a stand-up comic!